This weeks project is an old desk top that I found on the side of the
road that had the legs missing. I came up with an idea to use two
decorative post and cut them in half to create the four legs. I used a
layered distressing technique for the bottom and on the top I used
several colors of stain to create a wave design. Continue reading down below :)

Creating the Funky Painted Desk

All right, so here's the desk
I’m going to be working with found it free on the side of the road. Somebody
had thrown it out with their trash. They had actually busted the legs off, I
guess to make it easier for the trash people to pick up. So it doesn't have any
legs and I’m going to have to come up with some kinda idea to replace those.
Overall, it's in really good shape. Its solid wood so that's always a plus.
It’s got a few blemishes here and there but that’s fine because you know my
overall look is going to be an old antique rustic look anyway. So I'm not worried
about that. The first thing I need to do is get this thing cleaned up. It’s got
a lot of just dingy-nest to it. Cobwebs, stuff like that. Probably going
to clean the top up a little bit just with a sander. All right, I just
finished sanding the top. It came out really nice and smooth. Except for this one
little part right here. I am actually going to go ahead and use some wood
putty. Wood putty is really easy to use. To use it, your going to go ahead and
fill this in and you don't need it to be perfectly smooth once you fill it in because
once it dries, your going to come back in a little while and go ahead and sand it
down to make it smooth. So just go ahead and get some in the groove. You can go
ahead and start to smooth it out a little bit but don't worry about getting it perfect.

So while the wood putty dries on the top, I'm going to go ahead and
get started on the legs. This is what I’ve decided to do, I actually just got
some decorative fence post that are actually long enough to where I’m able to
cut one of them into two different legs and use one for the front and one for
the back. The idea I have is to use this decorative part for the front portion
of the desk and square part for the back legs. I just think it will be a good
alternative instead of buying those expensive pre-made legs they sell at the
hardware store. I think it will be a cool idea. I'm going to go
ahead and get these cutted... Cutted?? I'm going to go ahead and get these cut
to the length's that I need. Once that's done the top should be ready
to do a final sanding and then I can go ahead and attach these legs.

So got all the legs cut down to the length that I need. The next thing I need
to do is just attach these. I think they're going to look really cool. I like
the way they're styled and everything like that so I think once I get them
attached and get this flipped. I think it will look really cool but I do need
to get them attached. I’m just going to use the technique they used on the
original legs. They just had a bolt that went into the backside of the leg. So
with these new legs I just marked it, drilled a new hole, and I'm using these
big thick lag bolts that will go at least halfway into the legs. It should give
it some sturdiness. I'm going to get that done and then I'll be ready to move
on to the decorating and painting or whatever I decide to do.So
just finished attaching the legs and I think it’s looking really cool. I think
those legs look perfect with the mismatched legs in the back opposed to the
front and as you can see it's made a little bit higher than like a normal desk.
Because the person I'm making it for wanted it to be where they could use a bar
stool and sit and then also stand and it be a perfect level to do projects and
stuff like that. So, its a little taller which was good being able to use legs
like I did because I could make them any length I wanted and I wasn’t limited
to whatever length you know like if I purchased a already pre-made one. That
worked out really good.

The next thing I want to do is go ahead and start
painting it and stuff like that. I have a few ideas you know and nothing is set
in stone. So I'm going to try things out and see how things look. Things could
change but for right now the idea is to leave the top bare wood. I'm going to stain
it like a dark color and not use any paints on the top. I’m going to use the
paint on the bottom portion, which, as far as the colors go I have some whites,
blues, and some greys I'm going to use. Then I'll really distress it and then
use some dark wax. That's what I plan on doing.

All right, I just finished up
that blue color and while that dries I'm going to go ahead and get started on
the top. I was just trying to come up with an idea because I planed on leaving
it bare wood and just using stain. Then I remembered seeing on the Internet where
this lady had drawn on the top then used stain to make it look like artwork. So
I'm going to try that out and see how that works. All right, to get this done
I'm going to use one of these small artistic paintbrushes and with the design I
have I'm just going to put it on part of it. With stain, the longer you let it
sit the darker it gets. So I’m going to have sections where I let it sit
longer. Then I'll have sections where I rub out quicker than I do some portions
of it and it’s going to give it a shaded look. I’m going to go ahead and attempt
and see how it looks. I'm going to go ahead and get started using this little
paintbrush. All right, I just finished the picture part of the top and I think it
turned out really cool. This was done just using stain and using that technique
where I put it on thick and then faded it out and I was able to come up with
this. I think it turned out really cool considering I've never attempted
anything like this before. It really wasn't that difficult. It was just intimidating
because it was using stain and once you put that stain onto bare wood its on
there. So, I didn’t really have the opportunity to really mess up a lot, I
pretty much had do get it right on every time. I think it turned out cool.

Now I
need to come up with an idea to frame it. I just did the picture on the inlay
part of this and I have this outside boarder that I need to come up with an idea.
I’m going to stay with just the wood look so I'm going to just use stain. I
have a few different colors and I’m going to start off with the lightest first
because you can always start light and then go dark if you don't like it. I am
going to start with the sun-bleached I have. It’s got that greyish look. I am
going to go ahead and stain it, see how it looks, and then go from there. All right,
I just finished up with the sun-bleached grey and as you can see it came out
really light and I'm not really feeling it. I couldn't decide if the light
would look good or the dark would look good but like I mentioned before, I
could at least start light and then always go dark. So I tried out the light,
don’t really love it so I’m going to go dark now. What I have is the color is
called Kona, which is going to be super dark. I'm going to go ahead and get
that on there and see how it looks.

So I just finished up that first layer of
Kona stain on the top and as that dries I'm going to go ahead and put the last
color on the bottom portion. Like I showed you before I painted all of these
first layers on the entire bottom, complete, and I'll eventually get to the
point where I sand away some of the top layers and it will show some of the
under layers. For the last color I want to use this, it's called Destin Gulf
Green, and it’s almost like this color I have on there but its a little bit
lighter. Just to give this top layer some contrast what I plan on doing is, it
will probably end up being just a lot of experimentation and messing around
with it and seeing what looks good and what doesn't. I'm not going to paint the
entire thing this color I’m just going to paint certain sections use different
techniques and I might put a thick layer right here and maybe dry brush it
right here and fill in some of these little grooves with this color. I
basically am going to make it really splotchy. I’m going to go ahead and get
started on that and see how it looks. Worst-case scenario if it doesn't look
that great I'll just paint the whole thing this color and distress it at the
end. So let me go ahead and start putting this color on and see how it turns out.
So I just finished up with that lighter color blue over that dark blue and you
can see how I put it on all splotchy. I know it looks kind of crazy right now
but it will actually be okay once I get the sand paper out and I start to blend
it and all that kind of stuff so I'm not worried too much how it looks kinda
goofy. Also, why I was doing that I decided I want to add a different color
into these little sections right there, there, and there. I think it will look
kinda cool. Sooo, I don't know, I'm going to maybe try out a few different
colors maybe the first color will be cool but I'm going to try out this yellow
color. I’m going to go ahead and put that on there and see how that looks.

All right,
I'm ready to get started with the distressing part and what I got going on here
is I'm going to start off using the power sander. I have a #80 grit sand paper on
here which is a really coarse sandpaper. The reason is I really want to start
off with that really good bite from the sandpaper and really knock down a lot
of the distressing initially with this and once I get all that taken care of I'll
go back with like a #150 or #220 and just hand sand it basically blinding it
just so it doesn't look so obvious that it was done with the power sander. So
that's what I'm going to go ahead and get started on.

So I just
finished with all the distressing and in the final step, I actually discovered
this by accident, I used that sun-bleached stain that I have that's alight gray
color and after I distressed everything, I just rubbed thin layer of that sun-bleached
on there and it actually gives it like a whitewash look. Usually if I attempt
to do a whitewash look on the final step I’ll usually mix up a white and just
really water it down and then rub it on like a glaze but by using that stain,
its already mixed up and easy to apply. I just rubbed it on and as soon as I
put it on I was rubbing it off so it wouldn't goon really thick or anything.
This is what I ended up with. I even did it on the top. It was new looking
having that nice dark stain that I actually sanded it just a little then I
added some of that sun-bleach on there and I think it really ties the top into
the bottom. I think it turned out pretty cool. So I'm done with all the
distressing and everything like that.

Next thing I'm going to do is to put wax
on the bottom. Clear wax then I'm going to use dark wax to really age the
bottom and then on top I’m actually going to use a Polycryclic high gloss. I
usually don't use the gloss finishes but with the top having the design and
everything I think it will really make it pop with a nice shine to it. So I'm
going to use Polycrylic which is just a water-based polyurethane on top, wax on
the bottom and then apply dark wax and that should be the finishing steps to
this project.

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